Milestone turns video data into AI-driven intelligence

With the volume of data humans generate doubling every two years or so, it's becoming increasingly difficult to process that data into wisdom and insight that can be applied in decision making. And while that's challenging with structured and unstructured text and numerical information, it's even more challenging to apply to video.

Video cameras are becoming omnipresent as organisations seek to understand crowd movements, manage safety and detect criminal activity. But analysing that data is hard. While a security officer sitting in a control room can probably monitor three of four cameras, monitoring a network of dozens, or even hundreds, of cameras requires an automated approach.

"This is where AI can move the needle," says Lars Larsen, the CFO of Danish technology company Milestone Systems. "It's in those scenarios where the customers can get the most benefits and those are the use cases where we prioritise our investments."

Milestone Systems has, in collaboration with NVDIA, developed a Vision Language Model. Using licensed and ethically sourced data, Lars says it will strengthen the company's XProtect platform to ingest data from a broad range of cameras that enables security operations to use a single interface that connects cameras, sensors, analytics and sites.

"There's a significant shift from CCTV to more AI-enabled and cloud-connected and data-driven video technology," explains Lars. "There are rising expectations for real-time insights across airports, hospitality areas, critical infrastructure and public spaces. We are focusing on how we can make sure that we offer a flexible product that can also adapt to the specific needs in APAC."

This is just the first step says Lars. He is seeing video systems becoming multi-modal platforms that combine video audio, and other data from many different sources. The collaboration with NVIDIA, named Project Hafnia (which is the Latin name of Denmark's capital Copenhagen and means 'harbour') will ultimately integrate data from multiple sources including cloud platforms. That will enable Milestone Systems' partners to build their own solutions combining data from different sources.

"We curate that library so we understand what is in the videos and what is in the pictures to build a video language model. It's a kind of a ChatGPT, but for video data. We can extract what is happening in the video sequence and present it, for example, as a text description," he explains.

An operator can share that description with an emergency vehicle that is on the way to a situation to give them a better understanding of what they will face so they can prepare. This enhances safety and maximises the opportunity for a successful outcome.

Lars says "That's where we will see the real efficiency gain. The next functionality being launched with XProtect product is a XProtect app platform that will make it easier for our customers to integrate different solutions into the platform and take advantage of Project Hafnia."

That product innovation is only part of what sits behind Milestone Systems' growth. With the APAC region growing by 26%, it's now one of the company's fastest growing markets, fuelled by increased demand for operational intelligence. Lars noted that Australia is a growing market that is quite mature.

Part of that innovation is being powered by strategic acquisitions. Bringing Brighter AI in the fold gave the company access to state-of-the-art anonymisation and the ability to quickly deliver a GDPR or privacy-grade product with Project Hafnia quicker than might otherwise have been possible.

With AI being on everyone's technology bingo card now, it's important to introduce AI with a clear strategy. For Milestone Systems, that strategy is about driving business growth by focusing on areas that deliver the most value to end-use customers.

"You must focus on business outcome and not the technology. That is where you should start. AI should solve measurable problems. That means using trusted and compliant and secure data. We started working on that some years back and we are seeing the market demanding that more and more," says Lars.

By investing in data quality and governance Milestone Systems provides a secure and solid foundation. In combination with its open platform, which can integrate with hardware and software from many vendors, it's possible to build a secure, reliable platform that enhances security.

Milestone Systems is turning the flood of video data into a strategic asset that delivers measurable business outcomes. The company's Video Language Models and the open‑platform vision of Project Hafnia can turn raw footage and other data into real‑time, multi‑modal insights that can be shared instantly with responders and integrated across diverse hardware ecosystems.

This fusion of advanced analytics, robust data governance and privacy‑first design not only meets the heightened expectations of airports, hospitals and critical infrastructure. As the industry shifts to intelligent, cloud‑connected video, the Milestone Systems' focus on business‑driven value, coupled with strategic acquisitions like Brighter AI, positions it to set the standard for secure, scalable, and actionable video intelligence.